Access to Alternative Finance for Businesses in Poole, Dorset

Good news! No more lonely trips to the bank to be told that “the computer says NO”.

Since the 2008 crash the banks have been licking their wounds and have become a lot more risk adverse. However there is still a lot of funding available to be used and Investors are looking for ways to leverage into viable growth projects. New technology has enabled this process of “disintermediation” (excuse the jargon) to happen and investors can now get their money into businesses via the new alternative finance platforms.

Crowdcube and Zopa were among the first, but now there a wide variety of different platforms looking to help the investor and the borrower, by giving the investor a better return on investment, albeit with a little more risk, and the borrower a faster more flexible and often more appropriate source of funds covering capital funding and loans.

One of the most common problems facing business owners is shortage of finance. This can be the capital to set up, or funding of the day to day cash flow requirements. It is often forgotten that in the growth phase of a business there can also be a rise in cash needed for day to day business survival and many potentially successful businesses have failed at this point. This can affect the business in a variety of ways, but usually only serves to distract the management team from the important job of actually running the business.

Being undercapitalised causes multiple business problems, from giving the business supply issues to developing an adverse credit history which can even affect your ability to take advantage of government grants as well as the obvious inability to secure future finance.

How can these new sources of funding help you? Remember the funding may be easier to obtain and more flexible but still needs to be affordable. So whether you are starting a business or experiencing a cash requirement in the day to day running of a business you MUST do budgets and MONITOR them. I often hear people telling me the budget is only a guess… Yes of course, but at least you can see where the variance is and action can be taken accordingly. If you contact the Dorset Growth Hub, our Investment Specialist can help you with budgets and cash flows. It is specialist advice during one to one meeting/s of up to 8 hours and is free of charge.

Having done a business plan which looks realistic we can help you to find the funding you need, either through the banks, finance brokers or asset finance providers who we work with closely. We can also help you find a way through the rapidly growing number of alternative finance providers from Kickstarter, Crowdcube to Market Street and Funding Knight and currently at least 102 other providers.

Contact Dorset Growth Hub for help navigating your way through the many different platforms available. All these providers have different eligibility criteria to apply for finance and we will try to find the most appropriate one for you.